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How can I measure the calories I burn when I run or workout?

Do any heart rate monitors do a good job at this, or is is just a guess?

Wed. Dec 14, 3:22pm

Heart rate monitors don't measure calories burned (I know Polar makes a weight loss range of monitors, but the numbers are a ballpark rather than a true individual result), they just help you pace yourself to achieve the results you want.

Self.com and Prevention.com have good calculators for figuring out calories burned (easy to find from their homepages). Alternatively, you could run on a treadmill that takes input about weight and age, then run at different paces to find out how many calories you burn per minute at 5mph, 6mph, 7mph, etc. and use those figures for your non-treadmill workouts.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 3:39 PM

I use the link below from healthstatus.com. I like this site b/c it's easy to use, it offers a wide range of activities, and when I compared calories burned for the same activity across multiple online calcultors, this results from this site were in the average range of all the other sites.

No online site or device like pedometor or heart rate monitor can ever acurately tell you how many calories you've burned b/c it's all based on muscle mass, sex, weight, target heart rate, length of workout, but at least you have some guide and ballpark figure to go on.

Link

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 3:44 PM

Another Option for a Calorie Calculator

The link below will take you to a calorie calculator by Stevens Creek Software. The calculator for calories burned in various activities is at the bottom of the page that will open up.

Stevens Creek sells an inexpensive software called "The Athlete's Diary" that I have used for almost 5 years. It includes the calorie calculator among other features.

Digby

Link

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 4:23 PM

FitDay also has a calorie calculator for various activities. It will also track your progress on the activities. I recently purchased the PC version and have been very happy with it so far.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 5:36 PM

Heart Rate Monitors do work

You enter in your age, height and weight at the calories burned is calculated according to your stats. They are calibrated more for running, so it will never be an exact science. It's certainly accurate enough to make sure that you are burning enough calories each week to help with weight loss - and also to measure the amount of calories burned during an exceptionally long exercise session so that you know how to refuel properly without overeating.

Also you can use the link below

Link

Thursday, December 15, 2005, 10:00 AM

still going to be inaccurate, because metabolic rate isn't just muscle age sex etc.. Chemical reactions going on in your body, hormonal things, all kinds of things play with your metabolism.

This is one reason I don't like weight watchers. For some people it can become obsessive counting calories in v. calories out, instead of focusing on the actual health of a person. Moreover, personally, I don't care about my wieght as much as I care about my dress size- no one knows my wieght- they know what I look like.

Focus on things like muscle tone developing in your body, longer cardio respiratory or strength endurance. Do an exercise because you enjoy it, and what you see it do to your body. Not just becaues it's the most effective way to burn calories. (And FYI, rollerblading does GREAT things for legs and butt)

Friday, December 16, 2005, 1:09 PM

accurate calorie burn

Heart rate monitors measure the number of heart beats per minute and using a formula they calculate the approximate number of calories burned. In my opinion they are the most accurate tool for energy expenditure. That's why all the pros use them.
Another way to measure an estimated number of calories burned is by using a mobile phone application, that will calculate the , while working out. I use sportypal, very accurate and intuitive app, that helps me track my progress. They even have hr monitor support which is great.

Link

Friday, August 12, 2011, 4:30 AM

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